I recently had an opportunity to speak with Leo Sullivan, one of the pioneering Black animators who helped lead the revolution of positive Black animated characters during the 1970’s. I interviewed Leo for close to an hour, spoke to him after the interview for a little longer. He was gracious, humorous and introspective. His bio and interview are below. It was an honor to speak to this Animation Legend.

Think of trailblazing black TV shows, and The Cosby Show immediately comes to mind. But before the Cliff Huxtable, there was Fat Albert, Bill Cosby’s beloved animated creation that became famous for his catchphrase, “Hey, hey, hey!”

The Museum Of UnCut Funk visited the FanBros Show to talk about our Funky Turns 40: Black Character Revolution Exhibition at the Schomburg Center. Kimsonian from FanBros came to our Curator’s Talk and to see the exhibition.

Our Funky Turns 40: Black Character Revolution Exhibition National Museum Tour was recently covered by Tanya Ballard Brown for NPR’s Code Switch blog. Below is Tanya’s article, which includes her conversation with legendary animator Leo Sullivan, who worked on the Fat Albert cartoon special and series and several other 1970’s cartoons that featured positive Black characters.

Star Trek was adapted for comics by Gold Key. The first issue was published on July, 1967. This series ran for sixty one issues, through 1979. Lieutenant Uhura, played by Nichelle Nichols, was one of the first positive Black characters on television and also one of the first positive Black characters to appear in a comic book series and later in a Saturday morning animated series.

The Museum Of UnCut Funk successfully completed it’s first showing of Funky Turns 40: Black Character Revolution at the ToonSeum in Pittsburgh, Pa. They have a beautiful space and we were very excited to have worked with them to kick off this historically important traveling exhibition.

The 1970s produced the film genre that would become known as ‘Blaxploitation’. These films were made specifically with an urban Black audience in mind. These movies were larger-than-life, action-packed and full of funk and soul music. These films also incorporated progressive social and political commentary. From Pam Grier to Bill Cosby, check out who delved into this genre and what the actors have been doing since the 1970s.